Black Dragon Author:Kirk Mitchell A grisly murder/suicide at a Japanese internment camp sets off an investigation that leads to the Hearst castle at San Simeon, a gang of aristocratic land thieves, and the corrupt heart of the US Army. The suicide is the menacing head of the criminal element among the Japanese in the California concentration camp at Manzanar. He has disemboweled... more » himself, but who administered the botched coup de grace? The murder victim, on the other hand, is the camp's administrator, a gentleman sympathetic to the plight of the interned American citizens. Who has separated his head from his shoulders?
The investigation lands in the lap of Lt. Jared Campbell -- a brilliant, poorly educated, slow-talking Okie who heads the camp's detachment of military police. Assisting is Hank Fukuda, a forensic investigator, late of Los Angeles, now interned for his ancestry. Lt. Campbell and Mr. Fukuda at first agree that all signs point to the guilt of Major Eddie Nitta, who has rejoined his family after losing his arm in action with the Rainbow Battalion in Italy. Major Nitta has been heard to threaten both of the dead men.
But fortunately for Major Nitta, Lt. Campbell and Mr. Fukuda are not only capable investigators but honest as well, and -- contrary to the expectations and desires of the unpleasant Col. Bleecher of Army intelligence--the investigators begin to demolish the pretty bits of evidence against Nitta that Bleecher and his associates have provided. In the meantime, confusing the issue for Lt. Campbell is his deep love for Maj. Nitta's intelligent and lovely wife Nimiko.« less